Wrapping it all up

5 of the 7 team members are back in New York today after wrapping up a great trip.  We spent Friday finishing up the painting project, and hosting the junior youth of FCBC.  During our 3 hours with them, we focused on some singing, story, crafts and games. 

It was a great week and we can't believe it went by so quickly.  Definitely puts it in perspective when you spend the week focusing on what's important in life.  All of us agree that we got a lot more out of our service than we put in, and feel blessed to have shared the experience serving those in East London.  Thank you for your support along the way, and we can't wait to share more details and photos of our journey. 

As mentioned, we were able to finish up the cry room project, and left FCBC with a great new room that will hopefully brighten up the service for families for years to come.  We wanted to share a few photos of the 2 walls that were drawn out by Susan & Monique.

We give thanks

It's been a couple of days since we last provided an update, so wanted to share the many opportunities and experiences that we have to be thankful for here in South Africa.  On Wednesday, we spent the morning working on our projects at the church.  The cry room painting is coming along, and we'll be posting photos soon of our progress. 

We also headed to Arcadia school to visit with the 7th grade class.  Arcadia is a school for children with special needs.  We had a great conversation with them and discussed everything about lifestyle choices to Justin Bieber...yes Bieber fever exists all the way around the world!

After lunch we headed on our game drive at Inkwenkwazi.  Despite some light rain, we saw a ton of animals and their babies....what a treat!  We then took the evening off and enjoyed some great food and time with South African friends. 

On Thursday, we headed back to Hope and enjoyed the morning with the kids.  So many of their stories will be coming back, and how we can all be involved with these amazing kids.  After Hope we hosted Fun Club again at the church and enjoyed acting out stories, building crafts and playing games with the kids. 

After our activities, we shared Thanksgiving meal (turkey, dressing and all of the favorites) with a few families here...40 of us in total!  So much to be thankful for and it's hard to believe that we only have 1 full day left!  More to come...

Jeremy

Why we're here

Today First City Baptist Church took the Journey missions team on an emotional roller coaster ride.  First we went to Hope School where we met the most adorable children you ever want to see.  We played games and the children sang songs for us with the most beautiful voices we've ever heard.  But beyond the smiles which never left one childs face is a lot of hardship which is found outside of the walls of Hope School.  After we left Hope School we went with Donnae, Pastor Barry's wife to meet the women she ministers to through the Alibaster Jars program. Through the Alibaster Jars Program Donnae spreads God's love to women who are prostitutes letting them know that God loves us all.  The women love her and she loves them.  We all prayed and shared prayer requests. Last on our trip was Fun Club which was an amazing way to end the day with singing, stories and games which we'll do again on Thursday. 

Greetings from South Africa!

Greetings from South Africa!  We arrived safely bright and early Saturday morning before starting an eventful weekend.  We started off attending the First City Baptist Church Christmas Fair to decompress and met many members of the church.  After the fair, we all met our host families and then finished off the evening at our first braai (barbeque).  Sunday was a full day of church.  We began our day with morning worship at the First City Baptist church followed by a visit to the townships of Duncan Village and Potsdam, where we worshiped with Potsdam Baptist Church.  At Potsdam Baptist Church we had the opportunity to listen to the beautiful voices of the locals. After the tour of the townships, we had a lovely lunch cooked by Ethne and then went off to visit Gonubie beach.  Now that we've had some time to get acclimated we're looking forward to meeting the children and helping with restorations.

-Anita & Katie